A longtime rural resident, I use my 60 plus years of life learning to opinionate here and elsewhere on the “interweb” on everything from politics to environmental issues. A believer in reasonable discourse rather than unhelpful attacks I try to give positive input to the blogesphere, so feel free to comment upon rural issues or anything else posted here. But don’t be surprised if you comments get zapped if you are not polite in your replys.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Time Flies

In a recent on line 'conversation' with a fellow Green about land value taxation I referred to an earlier 'conversation' I had with former green leader Frank de Jong and after having posted my reply went looking for the original post. A quick search via google failed to find it but being one of those folks who keep everything (unfortunately not just electronic records) a little digging in my archives found the response. A further search on line using tighter terms found the article on line and much to my dismay and consternation I found it to be dated 2007! Where did those years go, has it really been that long, how long have I been letting off steam on the internet?

A quick look at this blog reveals that it has been on line since January 2008 and has 219 posts, hardly up to some bloggers volume but not a bad effort, enough to garner some 1000 or so 'hits a month. So then I had to go see what my other online efforts revealed, Democracy Under Fire has without a doubt recited more attention from myself and readers in recent times, I am no less interested in rural affairs that I was 8 or 9 years ago but have come to the realization that without a functioning democracy trying to bring rural issues to the fore is simply an exercise in frustration.

So having launched that blog two years later in Feb 2009 I was not surprised to see that it had garnered about the same number of 'hits' over time on about the same number of posts at 225. That I am finding it difficult to keep up the effort is perhaps understandable, on a personal level I have little to write about although god knows there are enough items on the political scene, be it on rural affairs, municipal, provincial or federal shenanigans or the ability of any of us 'peons' to have any impact upon those that profess to lead us, I am simply getting tired of it all.

The only thing that keeps me going is the miniscule possibility that one of my posts may make someone somewhere seek a little more information, come to the realization that we are all reliant upon each other, that our governments at all levels are generally interested in only two things = power and money. That the ever decreasing rural population who maintain our fields and forests are in danger of extinction, or at the very least relegated to a position of irrelevance in the minds of much of the urban population and out 'lead’s in Queen Park and Ottawa. That unless we actively protect those things we take for granted, like democracy, freedom of information, the air we breath, the seas and lands and forests of our great country, the science that lets us evaluate their heath and so many other basic things that are under attack from governments, corporations and foreign interests they will all be eroded as we sit and do nothing.

This then is my bit towards that activity, its small, it perhaps has little impact but at least it is an effort to make a difference. You input may be different but I urge you to do your bit, as I say at the top of Democracy Under Fire “Democracy requires dialogue” and it matter not if you agree or disagree with my point of view it is the dialogue that is important.

Oh.....and the rant clears my mind and makes me feel soooo much better!

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